Your Early Bird Guide to ­Summer Camps

Read on; dreaming is ageless

By Sandra Olivetti Martin

For generations of kids, summer was what you wrote home about. For the week or two of camp — even the whole expansive summer for the lucky ones who lived on the water or traded inland homes for once fashionable boarding houses — you might as well have been in heaven, were it not for the sea nettles.
Those times have never ended.
This week, Bay Weekly shows you how, where and when the kids in your life can continue the tradition. With or without jellyfish.
We created this week’s Summer Camps Guide in the spirit of seed catalogues. Whether you plant a garden or not, you can enjoy seed catalogues for beauty and variety. Whether you have kids or not, you can romp through these camps for fun, as writer Michelle Steel and I have, savoring the experience of armchair camping. It’s so readable that we’ve restructured this week’s paper so the Guide can be pulled out for future reference. Calendar has moved up to the front of the paper to accommodate it. Find Sporting Life, Bay Gardener and Sky Watch in the back of this week’s paper.
Have kids? Read with them and dream. There’s so much to be made of this summer that you’ll wish you were the kid instead of the parent. Kids from toddlers to teens can learn to swim, sail and paddle; ride a horse or act like an Oscar winner; climb a rock wall, row a boat, sing a song or create a masterpiece. You can sharpen your brain, build your muscles or strengthen your game — in most any sport. You can train with midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy or go to college early at Anne Arundel Community College or the College of Southern Maryland. Field trips all over Chesapeake Country and beyond add to the fun at many camps.
If you’re in the right age range, you can share in the fun no matter what your abilities or disabilities. We’ve made special effort to include camps for every taste and person.
Wherever you live, you’ll find many choices within your commuting circle — on the Bay, on rivers and creeks, at yacht clubs and boat docks, in pools and at beaches, in parks and recreation centers and schools public, private and specialty. Our Camp Guide is organized by geography, so your dreams don’t take you too far from reality. A few camps offer bus service from local elementary schools; with those you can widen your dreamscape.
Most of our listings are day camps, ranging from half to full days. But don’t shorten your dreams. You’ll also find overnight camps and camps offering both options.
We’ve written each listing as a tempting overview. For prices and full details, check the camps’ websites. Some, especially city and county parks and recreation camps, are surprisingly affordable. One — Game Plan Camp sponsored by Mount Zion United Methodist and other Southern Anne Arundel County churches — is free. For others, you’ll have to break open the piggy bank.
In making this Camp Guide, we’ve tried to turn every stone. No doubt we’ve missed some; let us know for our Last-Minute Summer Camp Guide in May — for all who aren’t early birds.